Case study B: Countries old and new: memorialisation among Polish migrants in Hull

This case study examines the different ways in which UK-based migrants memorialise their loved ones through an ethnographic case study of the Polish community in Hull. By combining two ‘classic’ themes in contemporary anthropology – death rituals and migration – the case study explores questions of complex and several identities as well as the relationships between tradition, change and adaptation of ritual.

Despite general acknowledgement of the potential impact of migration on death management practices, research to date has been limited. Our research collects ethnographic data on migrants’ forms of memorialisation aims to garner insights into emerging forms of memorial in British migrant communities. Our study addresses such questions as:

What kinds of rituals, public and private, continue after the funeral and where do social events take place?

Do migrants merge traditions from home with those of the adopted culture, and if so, how?

Do they utilise newly emerging forms, such as digital, to overcome barriers of place?

Our research stream is methodologically divided into two parts. The first part establishes a theoretical framework, including a detailed review and mapping of the international literature on migrant memorialisation and analysis of the local British institutional, social and cultural context. The second part is empirical, focussed on the Polish community in Hull via qualitative research methods: (a) ethnographic fieldwork and participant- observation; (b) in-depth interviews and (c) life histories.

We are examining patterns of migration, migrants’ networks, personal experiences of migration (micro-level/agency), the bureaucracy of death, bereavement and memorialisation, both on the micro-level (agency) and the societal level (macro- level/structure). The fieldwork in this work stream is mainly based on life histories, ethnographic participant-observation and in-depth interviews with informants from the Polish community and local key stakeholders in Hull.